Life insurance as analogous to Covenant theology

Meeting the needs of clients

There are two principles that form the foundation for an agent’s effective life insurance presentation. The first is that its purpose is to uncover the needs of the client and eventually show how life insurance satisfies those needs. Everything a producer does and says during the presentation is part of the strategy to influence the prospect to make a decision that, before the presentation, she had no thought of making.

The second principle is that the function of the life insurance producer is to help people solve financial problems. It’s likely that many people a producer talks to will not recognize these problems or, if they do, they’ll tend to ignore them. People are engrossed in the task of taking care of today’s needs. If they think of the future at all, they’re inclined to put it in a second place because today’s pressures consume their attention. A producer’s role is to isolate these problems and present them to prospects in such a way that they’ll want to do something about them.

A life insurance producer does not create problems — he helps people address and solve problems. In consulting with clients, the agent/producer establishes the overall problem, then the specific problems; assesses the need; presents the life insurance solution; and finally, closes by securing the necessary coverage for the clients.

Insurance agents sometimes face the objection from radical Christians that they won’t need insurance because “the Lord will be coming back first,” or they allegedly received some sort of other eschatological revelation that they allow to dictate their personal affairs. The absurdity of this excuse is easily exposed by telling the radical Christian, “The Lord sent me to you today to make sure you get insurance.”

Evangelism, the task of proclaiming the gospel to those who are lost, winning them to Christ, baptizing and discipling them, is somewhat similar to the task of the life insurance agent. It involves approaching people who would rather talk about another subject — any other subject; exposing their need to talk about it; reasoning with them about why they can’t afford not to get it; and finally, bringing them into covenant with God through Christ — the ultimate “life insurance.” This often involves an approach of apologetics, or providing a rational defense of the gospel. Evangelists and apologists, agents of God’s covenant, establish reason for the existence of God and show that just as people do not live and breathe apart from Him, so they cannot have eternal life apart from Him (Acts 17:16-17, 22-31, II Corinthians 10:5, II Timothy 4:5).